Hutchinson named dean of undergraduates at Rice; Burrus to serve as interim dean of engineering

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Hutchinson named dean of undergraduates at Rice; Burrus to serve as interim dean of engineering

Rice University Professor of Chemistry John Hutchinson has been appointed dean of undergraduates, President David Leebron and George McLendon, who will become provost next week, announced today. The appointment is effective July 1.

“I am thrilled that John Hutchinson, with his history of dedication to the Rice undergraduate experience, has agreed to become our next dean of undergraduates,” Leebron said.

Hutchinson is a seven-time recipient of Rice’s George R. Brown teaching awards. Prior to the reorganization of administrative and academic leadership of undergraduate education under the dean of undergraduates five years ago, Hutchinson served as assistant vice president for student affairs and interim vice president for student affairs. He also has been a master of Rice’s Brown and Wiess residential colleges. Hutchinson succeeds Rice’s first dean of undergraduates, Robin Forman, who left Rice to become dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Emory University.

“John’s numerous teaching awards are testimony to his rapport with students and his grasp of the academic aspect of the student experience at Rice,” McLendon said.

Leebron and McLendon also announced that former engineering dean Sidney Burrus will serve as interim dean of the George R. Brown School of Engineering, effective Sept. 1.

“The School of Engineering thrived under Sid’s leadership, and we’re very happy to welcome him out of retirement and back into the role of interim dean while the search for a new dean is under way,” McLendon said.

Burrus, a Rice alum and the Maxfield and Oshman Professor Emeritus of Electrical and Computer Engineering, served as Rice’s dean of engineering from 1998 to 2005. He has also served as chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and as director of the Computer and Information Technology Institute. A former master of Lovett College, Burrus is also the recipient of multiple teaching awards at Rice and the Association of Rice Alumni’s highest honor, the Gold Medal. Current Dean Sallie Keller will be leaving Rice at the end of the summer to become director of the Science and Technology Policy Institute in Washington, D.C.